Sam Farr: “Thank you very much, Ranking Member Bishop and Chairman Culberson. I rise as the longest serving member on this…”

“Thank you very much, Ranking Member Bishop and Chairman Culberson. I rise as the longest serving member on this subcommittee, and I want to commend you both, the chairman and the ranking member, for your hard work in ensuring that this bill is another significant step in fulfilling our promise to our country that has made these commitments to our veterans that we will leave none of them behind. This committee has a strong history of working in a bipartisan way to produce a bill that supports our Active Duty servicemembers, our veterans, and their families, and I think this bill is no exception to that. For example, the VA has taken steps to rectify the deplorable backlog of benefit claims as everyone has mentioned so far. We owe it to our veterans to exercise our constitutional oversight responsibilities to ensure that the VA is actually fixing that backlog. I am pleased the bill before us today includes language I requested with many of my colleagues that continues additional oversight requirements for the Veterans Benefits Administration and requires regular updates from the VA to Congress on the status of the backlog. Through regular updates from the VA, we will be able to ensure accountability that will ultimately end the backlog. Additionally, I am pleased to see the bill recognize that the VA must be able to employ enough mental health providers.…”